Star Guardian
by BillieJean485
Summary: Another threat has been released: Pete has stolen Fairy Godmother's magic wand and put a Stop-spell on the worlds, and with Sora asleep only the King and Riku can stop him. However, a mysterious girl appears, but without a voice and any powers whatsoever, she is of little help. Riku is forced to take care of her. Will two anti-socials make one whole person? (Not an implied RikuxOC)
1. Prologue

_Hey guys!_

_This is my first time ever uploading a fanfic on this site, so please treat me like a newbie.  
My main account is on deviantART, where I have uploaded this fic first, but do to the lack of... well, _everything,_ I decided to give good ol' FF. Net a go. :) More people are surely to read it here than there, and overall, this site has better features regarding fan fiction. (Go figure. XD)_

_Anyway, without boring you further - this story is just something that fell on my mind during the end of December, as I started playing Kingdom Hearts once again (been a fan since 2006). I became a really big fan of Riku; and I still don't get why, because the Trinity was always Number 1__ for me_ (I still love Sora very much), and I paid him no mind before. Guess things change...  
_ I am hoping to get this done as soon as possible, and I'd really appreciate any kinds of creative reviews (except for flaming)._  
_If you're interested to find out more about the story itself and how it was made, you can check out the online folder dedicated to it: gallery/41878254 (add this after my main address), or you can simply track me down on deviantART (I go by the same pen name).  
Everything else I can tell you for now is that this takes place right after Reverse/Rebirth's ending, and that the story itself is put in the 'in-between parts' of the original story, which the KH maker's crew never really revealed, so it shouldn't change anything from the canon. However, keep in mind that I haven't played Dream Drop Distance or Birth By Sleep (although I have done my research in exchange), so some things might be off.  
_

_Without further ado - here's the story! :D_  
_This is the prologue, and chapter 1 will be up soon.  
Hope you enjoy! :)_

* * *

Two small figures in black cloaks were silently walking down a path in the vast plains, with the night surrounding them and hiding their presence. However, it was dawning in the distance, and they were going straight towards the light.  
"Umm... Mickey..." Riku started, as he and the King of Disney Castle stopped to take a break from their long walk, "...why... why did you think I was going to choose to go to sleep?"  
The King was somewhat surprised by the reluctant question his companion posed. He thought for a moment before answering. "It was one way for you to deal with the darkness inside of you," he said in the end. "You would turn yourself back to the light, and it would protect you."  
"But," Riku started again, "wouldn't that mean I would... I dunno - avoid it somehow? By slacking off?"  
"...Hmm..." Mickey responded, thinking about it. It wasn't really how he saw it, but with Riku, he was learning to think in other ways.  
"...Along with the darkness... I would forget everything that matters too," Riku added further. "My friends... and what they've been through, what I've..." he paused for a moment, "...made them go through..."  
Mickey turned to look at him. "Don't worry about that Riku," he told him. "You have chosen your path now. What happened before doesn't need to count, because you decided to deal with it."  
"...Yeah, you're right," Riku agreed, remembering everything that happened in Castle Oblivion - how he fought Ansem and decided to finally accept the darkness inside of him. But, none the less, it didn't make the past go away. That was something he had yet to do - make up for everything he did and that still haunted him.  
The two looked up at the starry sky. Like it held answers for all the things that were yet to come. Maybe it was there that they would find the right path which would bring the peace to everything that was happening, and help Sora wake up faster... As well as make the rest of the foul darkness in him go away...  
It was then that they noticed a small star blink in the distance and right after, it plummeted towards the ground, leaving a long trace of light behind itself. It caught their attention instantly.  
"Oh!..." Riku gasped. "...A shooting star?..." he muttered.  
But His Majesty seemed to turn a bit more serious about it than he was. "...That couldn't mean anything good..." he thought out loud. The silver-haired boy turned to him.  
"You think it has something to do with another world?" he asked him. But just when Mickey was about to answer, another star blinked, and then faded. The mouse jumped to his feet. Now Riku turned serious as well. "But how can that happen? I thought the worlds were restored once we closed the door!"  
Nothing else seemed to happen after that. For that moment at least.  
"...This doesn't look good, Riku..." His Majesty told his friend, obviously worried. It was hard not to panic. Even more so because they were a long way from anything that could tell them what was going on. And they were the so-called protectors of those worlds.  
"...What are we going to do?" Riku asked him. Mickey thought briefly. Something instantly fell on his mind. "I got an idea. But..."  
It was just such a hasty idea. Even for the King it was too much. Just when they thought most of the worlds were out of danger, this happened. It was impossible for the Heartless to raid and destroy the worlds like they previously did, but... This was just so odd. Just what did happen? Did somebody else get up there?  
"...Looks like we'll just have to deal with this one step at a time," Mickey said. It was pointless to just rush into anything head-first, even if it was something serious. Though it didn't seem to be so... After all, it was just two stars they saw...  
Riku sighed exasperatedly. "And of all times, Sora picks this one to take a nap. What a reliable Keyblade wielder," he joked at his friend's expense. Mickey smiled a bit at that. "It's up to us this time," he said. "Yeah," Riku agreed.  
And with that they set their new destination.


	2. Mute Meddling

Passing through the steeply sloped street of Twilight Town was a boy around the age of 15, silver hair, dressed in blue, yellow and black, relentlessly fighting against the Heartless that kept popping in front of him. It was Riku; he was alone, and he seemed to be looking for something. That is, that seemed to be so only when the Heartless would give him a short break.  
Thankfully, such a moment just occurred. He whacked the last Shadow on its head with his trusty dark blade, and then he stopped to take a look around the empty town. It wasn't like the place seemed dead; it was just so oddly devoid of people._ Folks must have taken cover because of all the monsters, _he thought.  
Before he could delve any further on the topic, another Heartless appeared behind his back. Riku quickly turned around as he heard it. They jumped at each other, and others came to the monster's aid, giving Riku the start of another fight.  
"Jeez... These guys just don't give up!" he said as he destroyed one part of the lot. He was starting to feel worn out. Without even noticing, he began to back away from them. He had been fighting them through the whole town ever since he got there.  
He was chased to the part enclosed by buildings. Luckily, Riku managed to lose them behind the last corner, so he stopped to catch his breath. But then something in front of him caught his attention. Somebody, or something, was hiding behind a small stony counter in front of a store. He carefully took a closer look.  
Two bare human hands were placed on top of the counter, and only a few messy strands of yellowish hair were visible behind it. They slowly moved up, revealing a lot of golden hair covering a shaky head. Then two big girly eyes, greenish, and filled with fright, showed up, looking straight at him.  
"Huh?" Riku said, confused. The person quickly dived back behind their hiding place. _She's probably hiding from the Heartless, _Riku thought. And that thought proved to be right already the next instant, because another swarm found him again. He growled and turned to them, going into attack.  
This time, he had to be extra careful, especially to keep them away from the counter. He slashed at the flying Heartless first, while dodging the attacks of those that were on the ground. Luckily, these guys weren't the really powerful ones, so it was easy to beat them. However, there were quite a few, and constantly swinging the blade with his full strength was tiresome.  
Making a twirl at the last two Heartless, he finally finished them off. Panting, he slowly lifted his gaze from the ground, as his neck felt like the only part of him that wasn't too heavy to move. The girl that was behind the counter wasn't there anymore. Or so he thought, before she peeked behind it again.  
"Hey," he tried greeting her cheerfully, but it seemed to frighten her even more, so she ducked as he finished, "Are you okay?" However, in a few moments, she showed up again, revealing herself a bit more than before. "It's okay," Riku tried reassuring her. "Are you hurt? Those Heartless were all over the place..."  
The girl shook her head timidly, rising up. She seemed to be a teenage, probably around Kairi's age. She wore a light yellow sleeveless shirt and a matching medium long skirt. "Oh, good," Riku said, slowly moving towards her. "My name's Riku. What's yours?" For whatever reason, the question seemed to shock her, and that confused him. "... Y... you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." He couldn't tell if that was the case, as she became very nervous, and started glancing around. "... Is... everything alright?"  
She looked at him straight in the eye, like not knowing what to do; then she got an idea and gestured to the front base of her neck, like wanting to tell him something was wrong there. "You... have a really sore throat?" he guessed, unsure. She shook her head, looking away. Then, she noticed something on the ground behind him.  
Riku turned to see what it was and the girl went towards it; there was a small pile of ripped pieces of paper, and a broken pencil. She kneeled down to them, seeming disappointed and sad. Then she started looking through what was left of what looked like it had been a notebook, and Riku realized he must have unintentionally destroyed it during the fight.  
The girl found a bigger piece of paper, took the broken pencil and quickly scribbled something on it. She rose up, went back to him and handed it. The piece was big enough just to hold 3 simple words - _'I can't talk.'_  
"... Ohh..." he said awkwardly, realizing what she must have meant. That put her at some ease.  
Suddenly, there was a sound of Heartless appearing outside of the place where they were. Both of them quickly turned to see where did it come from and which one was it. Luckily, it was just one Darkball, and it wiggled about on the street outside, unaware of their presence.  
Before anything else, Riku quickly grabbed the girl's hand and led them behind the counter. Once out of sight, he checked to see if they were spotted. The Heartless went patrolling in the other direction, still unwary.  
He sighed in relief. "It didn't spot us," he told her. That may have comforted her a bit, but she just kept looking at him with a worried expression. "Umm..." he started, remembering his current situation, "... I'm sorry... about the notebook..." It took her a moment to get it, then she quickly looked away, shrugging it off. She wasn't upset with him about it.  
"Soo... any idea where everybody else is?... I haven't seen anyone ever since I got here..." he asked nervously, not sure if she'll be able to give him an answer. The girl slowly shook her head, equally uneasy, biting her lower lip in the process. Riku quickly broke the tension and glanced around.  
Then she suddenly remembered something. She touched his arm lightly to get his attention, and when he turned to her, she slowly put her index finger up. It took Riku a few seconds to get what it might mean. "Oh, you've seen someone?" Finally, she nodded. Then she took a moment to think up a way how to explain.  
Without any better idea, she extended her arm in front of her, showing with her hand a distance between the ground and it. It wasn't really big. "Okay... the person was small...?..." he guessed. She glanced at him, nodded, then proceeded with the next clue. She pretended to have something behind her back, and like she pulled something from her shoulders over her head. "Hooded?" Riku said. Once confirmed, she started motioning two big circles on each side of the top of her head. "Round things on... Oh! The King! You saw the King?!"  
She wasn't really sure what he meant with 'the king', but she nodded anyway. "So that means..." he said to himself. Actually, he had no idea what it meant, but it was a good choice to come here and inspect the place.  
Anyway, right now they needed to find a better place to hide. "Is there anywhere safe we can go to?" he asked her. She looked down, not being able to think of any such place. "Alright... guess we gotta make ourselves our own then," Riku said, looking over the counter to check where the Heartless were. The girl blinked blankly at him, not knowing what he meant. Riku thought for a moment. _This isn't my first visit here. So, where was it that was most secluded...?...  
_ _...The mansion?_ But, to get there, they'd have to go through a forest, and who knows what was in it now. Sure, he could pass through by himself, but if he had to take care of a defenseless girl as well... It would be so much easier to just hide somewhere nearby now. Inside of a building or something.  
"Are any of these shops open?" he asked, referring to the numerous shops that were in the Market District where they were now. She looked away and shook her head. "Great," he said sarcastically. "They could have at least kept them open for others to find shelter."  
That left only one choice - he had to clear out the place of Heartless. He rose up, while the girl stared at him in shock.  
"We have to find out what's going on," he told her. "We can't just sit here all day. The Heartless are pouring out of someplace, and we have to stop them..." Seeing her looking at him like he went mad, he added: "Well, I'll stop them. You just have to stay close so I can protect you."  
She gave it a thought. She definitely didn't want to stay alone, and, even if it was dangerous, going with him would probably give her a better chance of staying safe. So, she looked up at him and gave him a nod.  
Then she slowly started getting up, and Riku offered her a hand. "Don't worry," he reassured her, while helping her up, "I'll keep them as far away from you as possible."  
The girl shyly looked up at him, and Riku realized he was still holding her hand. He quickly let go and looked away, feeling awkward. It was the same for her. "Okay..." he started, turned away from her, "...let's go..." He started walking back from where he came from, and the girl followed, her gaze glued to his back.  
They moved to the very edge of the building and peeked from there. The Darkball was still there.  
"Alright, here's the plan: I'll go make a distraction. Odds are, more are going to appear. If that happens, I'll fight them off. You just stay here. But, do show yourself a little from the edge of the corner - just so that I can see you." The girl was nervous, but confirmed she'll do it. "If anything goes wrong..." he trailed off. He almost forgot she couldn't call. "... Well, either make some noise, hide, or run to me - I'll think of something."  
As uncreative as those ideas were, they were approved, and Riku bolted off onto the street. He gave the Heartless a surprise, and with a few slashes with his Soul Eater, it was gone. But, like he predicted, more appeared.  
He turned around a few times during the battle and glanced at the girl, to make sure she was OK, but that earned him a kick in the back from an aerial attack. However, he paid the monsters back for it right away.  
After a while, the street was cleared. Riku wiped the sweat away from his forehead and the girl quickly walked up to him. She looked concerned. "Don't worry," he instantly started straightening himself, "this is as easy as it can get!" Truth be told, he played it cool.  
They proceeded right into the next part of town, where more Heartless made a welcoming committee for them. The girl quickly ducked behind some cans and boxes, and Riku went at them. There were a lot of spell-casting small Heartless, so he jumped up, hit one towards a few others, then made a powered up smash to the ground, destroying the ones that were bellow. After that, he concentrated on the ones above.  
When it was over, he turned around to look for the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen. He opened his mouth to call for her, and then it hit him - he didn't know her name. Luckily enough, she rose up from where she was. He went to her.  
"Ughhh..." he sighed, relaxing his back "... I'm really starting to feel all this... I hope there aren't many more out there." She was just looking at him silent and timid.  
"... Hey, I just realized," he said, "I... don't know your name..." She gave him that half-shocked look again, and he got confused as to why, like he did before. "What, you don't wanna give it to me?" he asked reluctantly. The girl got even more shocked and shook her head very fast, meaning to tell him that was not the case. "... Something's wrong with it?" She was desperate because she didn't know how to answer. "... Okay, do you at least have it?" he asked, running out of ideas. She gave him a troubled look, turned her gaze away for a moment, and then turned back shrugging very sadly. Riku went speechless.  
"... You don't... know...?" he didn't even know how to finish the question. How does one not know about their own name?  
There was an awkward silence.  
"... Well, how about a nickname or something?... I mean, I really need to be able to call you." She stared blankly at him. "Hmmm..." he started thinking. "How about something simple, like Aki? Annie?" She just blinked. "... Vall?... Hey, how about Zuki?"  
She didn't respond for a moment, but then she gave it a quick thought and nodded. "OK, Zuki it is then. Untill... you find your true name..." The girl was finally OK with it all.  
"OK... Now... how about you tell me where you got the notebook? So I can get you another." Zuki was dumbfounded. Then she quickly thought of a way to tell him, although she felt kinda stupid for having to come up only with that. She shyly bent down, again showing with her hand a distance from the ground, then made two circles at the top of that. After it, she pointed at 'it', then made a gesture like giving something away and pointed at herself in the end. "Oh, the King gave it to you?" She confirmed. She wanted to simply ask him why did he keep calling the one she referred to 'king', but, she lacked the way of doing it.  
"Great, now I'm in hot water..." Surely, Mickey wasn't going to be mad at him for it, but none the less it made him feel bad he destroyed something the mouse helped with. "... Is there a bookshop around?" The question caught Zuki by surprise. She never really saw one or gave it a thought.  
Riku saw she was having trouble responding. "Maybe we'll find one along the way?" She looked up at him. She shrugged a bit, wanting to say _"Perhaps."_ With that, they continued.

* * *

_Here's Chapter 1._

_I am overwhelmed with editing on FF. Net for now, so not much will be said. _XD_ Also, I'd hate to repeat here what I already said in the ANs on dA, but I can't figure out a way to give you a good link to everything I uploaded. _

_Please just enjoy the story for the time being, and let me know what you think if you can. ;P I'll be back soon!_


	3. Why Should I Worry?

Riku and Zuki continued further. More Heartless appeared, but now only at random, and just a few. However, both were exhausted and Riku's muscles just weren't listening to him anymore. He now only kept Zuki hidden somewhere in the back and protected her.

The last Heartless lunged at him. It was a big and powerful Defender, and Riku couldn't fight him anymore. At that moment, something small and furry with white and brown jumped at the monster and the creature tripped to the side. It was a dog, as much as Riku could make out of it, before another big grey one crashed its full body weight into the Defender, sending it further away. Lastly, a Bulldog spread itself onto the ground in front of the Heartless' feet and the monster finally fell down. An Afghan Hound jumped onto its head, knocking it out further. An angry Chihuahua wearing a headband was barking at it madly by its feet and biting it.

The Bulldog, grey Dane and the female Hound jumped onto the Heartless' back and the monster was finally done. Only its shield with a face of a nasty dog stayed behind, and the Chihuahua went to bark at it. The shield snarled and snapped back with its huge teeth, and the Chihuahua ran away yelping.

Zuki emerged from her hiding place and slowly went towards the dogs. Then they noticed each other and the dogs ran to her. Zuki kneeled down and welcomed them with a hug, as they greeted her with a few licks and cuddling up to her.

_They seem to know each other,_ Riku thought. Zuki looked up at him. "Friends of yours?" Riku asked her. Zuki was about to give him an answer, when the white terrier-mix caught her attention with a muffled bark. He was holding something in its mouth. Zuki took it from him and inspected it. As she realized it was a brand new notebook, she closed her eyes in big relief, putting it over her chest. She gave a sincerely thankful look to the dog, and the mongrel smiled to himself, proud he did a good job.

Riku wasn't too happy that a dog beat him to _his_ job though.

Zuki quickly took out the broken pencil she had and wrote down a message. Then she walked up to Riku and showed him what she wrote. _"These are my friends: Dodger, Rita, Tito, Francis and Einstein" _- and she pointed at each dog according to its name: Dodger was the one who gave her the notebook, Rita was the lovely Afghan hound, Tito was the hearty Chihuahua, Francis was the prideful Bulldog and Einstein was the old Great Dane. _"They are looking for their friend,"_ she quickly added. Riku just gave her a questioning look on that. The girl realized she had to tell him the full story.

_"One day, I just woke up in this town, in the Market District..."_

... As she did, she realized she couldn't recognize anyone or anything around her. However, she couldn't remember anything either. She just knew she was lying on the ground, in a back alley or something.

A man who was holding a shop nearby found her. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked her. But the question stayed unanswered, for when she opened her mouth to form a sentence, no sound came out.

Was she always mute? She didn't know. She just knew it was making things harder for her; making everyone that tried helping her feel awkward in her presence. They started avoiding her because of it. That shocked her - was she really that different?

She ended up being on her own most of the times. Luckily that shop-keeper was kind enough to take care of her for those few days after she turned up in town.

But like things weren't weird enough, one day they got even weirder.

Late in the afternoon, when everyone went to their homes after work, and she was alone in the Market District by chance, this big fat animal-looking guy with black fur and strange clothes came out of something like a portal and some dark creatures followed him. He had a nasty smirk on his face, a huge chin that added to his villainous look, and his clothes were in all shades of mostly blue and some red. He was carrying something, but she couldn't make out what, since he was too far away. It seemed he was commanding the creatures that followed him, and he was quite confident with whatever it was he was doing.

However, his confidence disappeared in an instant when a pack of angry dogs came out of nowhere and attacked him. The creepy creatures protected him, but the dogs somehow outwitted them. And instead of falling killed, the monsters disappeared into dark smoke when defeated, releasing glowing hearts. Now, all of the attention was turned to the cat-like character, and the strays snarled at him.

The fat guy backed away slowly. "Now, don't make me use this on you mutts!" he tried scaring them, but they didn't even flinch. Then he took out a long white wand out of one of his pockets and turned the sparkling top at them. The dogs stopped for a second, not sure what he was going to do. The dark guy seemed to be having some trouble in using it, and was very nervous.

"D'ohhh - what were those magic words again? Bippity... pippity... poo?..." Seeing that nothing was happening, the dogs slowly moved towards him again with low growls. The fatty panicked. "Ohhhhh - alakazam!" he tried casting a spell again, but nothing. "Abracadabra! Um, hocus pocus!" Still nothing. "Stupid wand!" he whined. "I call upon all of the magic that's in this broken stick!" he lifted it towards the sky in desperation, as if that was going to help him, "Give me a spell powerful enough to stop anything in the world! Bibbidy-bobbidy-boooo!"

A streak of blinding green light shot out of the wand and went into the heavens, splitting the clouds apart and creating a dark vortex in the middle of it. Stars showed up beyond it, and the green light proceeded further up. It divided itself into two lines, and they crashed into two stars. Instantly, the light of the stars stopped twinkling.

The furry guy slowly stopped staring at his own creation and turned to the dogs, starting to snicker evilly. The dogs now looked at him in shock and fear. He started waving the wand around, making more beams of green light come out of it, then he abruptly pointed it at them and yelled: "Do the same thing again! Biddiby-boddiby-boo!"

The magic hit them as they all closed their eyes, expecting the worst, and it flowed from them to the ground, covering almost everything. It even got to her.

She opened her eyes when the brightness disappeared. She glanced at the dogs. They were like paralyzed. But then the white mongrel with the red scarf opened his eye to peek around. Others did too. Somehow, they could still move. The villain dropped his jaw to the ground. "Why didn't it work this time?!" The mutts quickly went back into their attack mode.

"Waah!" he backed off quickly, yelping and putting hands up in defense in front of him. "Stay away!" He pointed the wand at them one last time, not even looking. "Knock 'em out; turn them into something! Bippidy-dippity-doo!" The dogs jumped on him, but another spell shot out of the wand and hit them in a loud bang. They were sent a few meters away from him, and they landed in a shape different than they originally were. They were bigger and dressed. Hair replaced fur; paws turned to hands and feet - they were human.

The fat guy was still covering himself, expecting to get clobbered. But nothing happened. He peeked over his shoulder to find the group unconscious on the street. It took him a few seconds to get that the spell worked, then he laughed madly. "Heh heh heh! Serves you right!"

Then he turned to the wand in his hand. "This thing is gonna get me a bunch of Heartless for Maleficent! I just need to figure out how it works!" He laughed again, then he turned around, opened another portal and vanished in it.

Zuki didn't know what to do with the people - once dogs - that were lying on the street. She thought it was better to go and look for help then go to them herself. However, there was nobody around.

By the time she came back and approached them, some of them have started coming to. Soon, they were all up. "Ugh, what the hell hit me?..." the guy with the scarf said to himself, rubbing his forehead. Another moan came from the shortest guy. "...Same thing that did the rest of us..." he spoke with a clear Mexican accent, getting up on all four. That's when the leader, the one that was the white dog, noticed he was rubbing his head with a hand. He stared at it in shock.

The lady with dark brown hair inspected herself too. "...Um, Tito, Dodger..." she looked around, looking for her canine companions, "...where are you...?" "I'm here Rita," 'Dodger' answered with a shaky voice, still staring at his hand - once paw. "Rita?!" the chubby guy stared at her wide-eyed, still lying on the floor. "...I... _think_ it's me Francis..." she answered him. The tall old man shook his head as he woke up, looking at them. "Guys... I'm dreaming..." "You're not the only one, Einstein!" the Mexican fellow said, trying to stand up.

Dodger thought for a moment. "Were we... turned to humans?" Francis and Rita slowly stood up, kneeling, while Tito fell down the instant he straightened himself on two legs. "It appears to be so," Francis answered, managing to get up easier than the rest, having shorter legs.  
Einstein tried getting up, but he fell down right away. Dodger got up too, and succeeded, having shorter legs like Francis. "Whoa... the view up here!"

One by one, they managed to get up only on two. They didn't know whether to be shocked or happy. Zuki didn't know what to do even less.

"Guys... this is great!" Dodger said. "We can get around a lot better - we can talk to other people and use hands! We can gather information a lot faster!"

"Information?!" Tito protested. "Imagine what we can do with these!" he said while looking at his hands.

"We can't think about that now - the kid is in trouble!" Rita said.

They were a really odd sight - Dodger and Tito were dressed in clothes only homeless people would wear (although they weren't that bad-looking); Rita had some long comfy ones; Francis was dressed like a broke actor and Einstein was in old grey and a bit goofy ones. Even their faces seemed to resemble their previous form.

It was then they noticed Zuki. "Hey, girly - have you seen a big fat guy smelling like a cat walk by here?" Dodger asked her as polite as he could master. Zuki stared at him wide-eyed. Then she remembered to nod. "Oh, great! Where did he go to?"

And then the same problem started all over again. She didn't know how to mimic a guy walking into a portal. "...You okay kid?" Rita asked her.

They learned she couldn't talk rather fast. That set them off track a bit, especially after they couldn't find anybody else to talk to. "Great. We're stuck with a mute kid in an empty world," Dodger spat out in front of her, upset. "Hey, Dodger man..." Tito said, trying to calm him down, "...that was rude..."

Dodger realized what he did as he saw the looks on his fellow companions, as well as hurt Zuki. "I'm sorry..." he apologized to her. "I'm just upset because... well... we got separated from our own world..." Then they told her their story, how they ended up lost in an unfamiliar world and how a friend of theirs, Oliver, got catnapped. It was like someone pulled them out of their world. And then they saw that no-good guy being up to something with Oliver, so they followed him.

The teenage wanted to tell them she ended up in this town out of the blue too, but didn't have a way of doing it. However, the gang managed to find out that she was homeless like them. "Hey, you're welcome into the group!" Dodger told her. Others agreed. "You just point us where to go in this town, and we'll do the rest for you!"

"Yeah, we can do all kinds of stuff now!" Tito agreed. "We have finally climbed onto a higher cultural ladder, and will not wobble amongst the dirt on all four again, like we have been doing for years and years..." Francis said, in a very dramatic manner. Other gang members gave him _the look._  
"Franky man, if you're gonna continue with that ***, I'm outta here!" Tito cursed in Spanish. Francis started shaking in anger. _"...Francis... it's FRANCIS!"_

Dodger laughed and Rita and Einstein smiled - some things never changed. "Okay gang - there's nothing to worry about," Dodger reassured them, "If we can survive every day in a huge city on four paws, we can find our friend in a small town while on two legs." "Yeah!" others agreed. "Now let's look for him, find a home for our new member and get out of here!"

* * *

_Now this chapter was a really tricky one. I gambled a lot on it, because it was too dangerous turning the canon dog characters into something else, but then again... who ever hoped to see Jaq and Lucifer from "Cinderella" turn into humans? That magic is too random in it's own world. XD_  
_Anyway, don't worry hardcore "Oliver & Company" fans - I won't keep them human for long. ;P Fairy Godmother's spells wear off eventually - ESPECIALLY in Pete's capable hands. XD_  
_Oh, there's that too! I hope all of you managed to recognize Pete out of my description - although it was rather poor... But then again; Pete's that type of indescribable character XD - I mean, could anyone describe Goofy without seeing him? lol_  
_Some things are just visually canonized. XD_

_... I have a feeling that this chapter is going to undergo a lot of edit. Firstly, because I planned it to look a lot different. The 'blast from the past' should have been just a few paragraphs long. However, it turned out this way as I continued to write it. I think I wouldn't do the story any justice if I just went over everything Zuki remembers in about 4 paragraphs. Secondly, I planned on submitting this after finishing the next chapter, but something happened to dA (where I was originally writing it and) as I was writing it, and it wouldn't let anything get saved or uploaded (I hope those files will come back once the problem is solved, because I wrote a lot on the next chapter, and I'm really not looking forward to writing it all over again.)_

_Other than that - it's official: once Sora and the gang left Traverse Town (in KH1), and just before Merlin and all of the others left it too (moving either back to their worlds or to Hollow Bastion), Pete snuck inside the wizard's house and snatched Fairy Godmother's magic wand, trapping her inside of it (how he did it - use your imagination; we know the Fairy Godmother is a little absent-minded so it wouldn't be too hard for her to leave it somewhere he could take it). After that, he used it on a star (a.k.a. Oliver's world) to get a person with a strong heart out of it, so he could get more Heartless. However, the whole gang was sucked out with him too, and when Pete got his hands on Oliver, they followed him. Pete wondered into Twilight Town after that. Why, I may give a reason later; or I could just call it random. It could have something to do with Zuki. We'll see._  
_Oh, and not too happy 'cause I left Riku out of this chapter a lot. But oh well - that'll be the first and last time._

_If you have some suggestions regarding this chapter, I'm opened to hear them. But, please be nice._


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